Dave Kittleson is shown here on his bike ride from Northern Minnesota to the

People who know David Kittleson know he enjoys bike riding. Many people have seen him pedaling one of his bikes in the Blue Earth area, usually with a group of fellow bike riders.

This fall the retired Blue Earth Area elementary school teacher took a bicycle trip of a different type.

He biked the length of the Mississippi River, beginning at Lake Itasca in Minnesota and ending at the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles downstream from New Orleans.

What began as an opportunity to enjoy an activity he loves, while seeing the varying landscape of the United States, turned into something so much more meaningful for Kittleson.

“The experiences we had, especially some of the troubles and complications, also served as a reminder of how good people are when all around us the world seems to be falling apart,” Kittleson explains. “We saw the best in people when we had troubles.”

He first learned of the bike trip through an advertisement he saw in a magazine.

“I was reading Adventure Cycling magazine and saw an ad placed by a guy named Dean, who was from Florida,” Kittleson comments. “It was one month before the trip was set to begin when I answered the ad.”

It was a group of seven who began the trip in Minnesota on Sept. 9. By the time the bikers reached their final destination, the number of bikers remaining was down to four.

“That is not unusual for a long trip,” Kittleson shares. “Some bikers may drop out and others may join in. Three people of the original starting group knew each other. The rest of us did not know anybody else in the goup.”

Of course, by the time the trip ended 1,800 miles later on Oct. 14, the bikers had all gotten to know each other quite well.

“I was the planner, the one who would usually find us a place to stay each night,” Kittleson says.

One of the instances of the goodness of people Kittleson marveled at occurred as the group was crossing a bridge over the Mississippi River.

“It was tight. It was a very busy bridge. Four of us began crossing the three-quarter mile length bridge when we noticed one of the bikers missing,” Kittleson recalls. “We had no choice but to keep going because we were in traffic. We were getting worried after crossing the bridge ourselves and having to wait for him and he was not showing up.”

But, then they saw him coming towards them, followed by a car who had his flashers turned on.

“It turns out he had a flat tire right after entering the bridge,” Kittleson explains. “And this car turned on his flashers to alert other drivers of a problem and then patiently followed our colleague as he limped his bike across the bridge.”

It is stories like this that mean more to Kittleson, who has basically been riding bike his whole life, than the thrill of completing the long trip along the Mississippi.

It really is not too much of an exaggeration to say he has been riding bike his whole life.

Kittleson, a native of Earlville, Iowa, got his first bike when he was six years-old.

“It cost $40 and I paid for half of it,” he says.

He completed his first distance ride to earn his cycling merit badge as a member of Troop 39 Boy of the Scouts.

“The beginning of my longer distance trips began in 1974 when some buddies and I rode from Council Bluffs, Iowa, all the way to Dubuque.”

He continued biking while attending college at Luther, in Dubuque.

“I brought the bike I had in college with me when I came to Blue Earth in 1980,” Kittleson recalls. “Then, in 1981, I met Larry from Larry’s Bike Shop, in Fairmont. I mentioned to him I wanted to ride across the country some day. It was over 20 years later when I finally accomplished that goal.”

He says he actually took his first “loaded” trip in the early 1980s on a Trek bike. He has also biked the RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) on more than one occasion.

In addition to his latest north to south trip across the country, Kittleson has also biked from the United States West Coast, beginning in Florence, Oregon, all the way to the East Coast, ending in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

“When we bike a long trip like this we really strive to stay together. One rider, who had a new bike which was not a touring bike, was having problems with breaking spokes,” Kittleson explains. “None of the rest of us had the same spokes so we could not help him. In this case we would bike on. But, it never failed, someone would come along and provide assistance. Perhaps they would give the rider a lift to a bike repair shop; people were always helping out and making sure the person who had problems would get to where they needed to go.”

Kittleson says the gear he carried on his bike weighed between 40 and 45 pounds.

“The bike itself is a steel frame bike so it is not super light,” he mentions. “The bike itself probably weighs close to 50 pounds.”

Of course, when traveling on a bike, when you go downhill you know you are going to be pedaling hard to go back up a hill.

“As tough as it can be to pedal up a big hill, it can also be very challenging going downhill,” Kittleson shares. “I reached 46 miles per hour on my loaded bike and it was scary.”

The group would spend many of their nights in local churches but as they traveled further south, fewer options were available because people were still cleaning up from damage caused by a hurricane.

“We were in Gonzalez, Louisiana, and had called the pastor of a Lutheran Church the night before to see if there was a place to stay but we had to leave a message,” Kittleson comments. “We had already made other arrangements when he returned our call the next day. He asked about our group and I mentioned I was from Blue Earth. It turns out the pastor was Karl Hollibaugh, who served St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Blue Earth about 20 years ago. It truly is a small world.”

After completing the trip, Kittleson returned to Blue Earth by plane and then waited for his bike to be shipped back north.

Now, he is back to enjoying some shorter rides of about 10 miles around Blue Earth with his local friends.

“We biked anywhere from 40 to 94 miles per day on the trip along the Mississippi and our average speed was 13-14 miles per hour,” Kittleson remarks. “It is nice to be home but it was a good trip and a wonderful opportunity to be reminded of the goodness which still exists in people.”